RIGHT IN TIME FOR THE IMPENDING FIRST DAY OF SUMMER, the vegetable garden is at that precipitous moment: Suddenly, production rate has gone from little early spring surprises gobbled up in delight, to more but still manageable, to—uh-oh!—an impending onslaught you can’t keep up with, with more, more, more to come. Seems like the best book giveaway right now would offer my favorite references on canning, preserving, freezing—all the ways to put up the harvest for delicious future reference. A roundup of my own tactics, and two chances to win “Stocking Up III,” “Putting Foods By” and the USDA guide to home canning:
You can win one of two, three-book sets that I’ve purchased to share as prizes—no, not my old food-splattered copies, above, but new ones. Promise! All you have to do to have a chance in the truly random drawing (I’ll use the tool at random [dot] org to pick a winner) is comment below, and be a subscriber to my email newsletter. All the details are at the end of this post.
Your comment should simply tell us what you like to put up for later from your garden or the farmer’s market—and it can be as simple as a sentence or include a recipe or a link to one; up to you.
Tips and Tricks:
Immediate ideas and tips on coping with the harvest can be had from these articles:
- What’s in My Freezer at Harvest Time: a Roundup of Ideas
- Making Pesto: Garlicky Green Ice Cubes
- Growing and Storing a Year of Parsley (good for many other green herbs, too)
- Dan Koshansky’s Hand-Me-Down Refrigerator Pickles
- Vegetable Curry-in-a-Hurry
- ‘Love Apple’ Sauce (Tomato!), and Real Applesauce
- All my recipes and cooking-related posts to date
- All my posts to date on growing and using vegetables, fruits and herbs
Elsewhere, sound, free information on food preserving:
- The National Center for Home Food Preservation has online help and pdf-style fact sheets and bulletins that may have the answers you need.
- Purdue University’s pdf publications on food safety, including topics like freezing fruits and vegetables, jams and jellies, and much more. Scroll down to the publications links list.
How to Enter:
Entries close midnight Thursday, June 24, with winners announced Friday.
For a chance in the truly random drawing (I’ll use the tool at random [dot] org to pick the two winners) you must comment below and be a subscriber to my email newsletter.
It’s easy to sign up for the latter if you haven’t already, and free, and here’s what it’s like in case you are worried I’m a spammer.
After I draw the winner, I’ll verify that he or she is, in fact, a subscriber…if not, I’ll draw again.
I know, that Margaret, she always wants something, right? Well, not really—there are no ads here or anything; I’ve done this for free for more than two years. (Truth be told, I do it for my mental health, and you are all part of the therapy.) But I love seeing our community grow, and the newsletter helps make that happen. Now back to the garden, and the kitchen…
I have bottles tied onto the pear tree and I’m now in my 3rd year of making French-style pear brandy (quickly becoming a signature holiday gift!). The Meyer lemons, off a single tree, produce about 2 bushels per month so I put that into everything from marmalade to curd to triple lemon poundcake to Moroccan-style preserved lemons to homemade bath salts to plain household cleaning products (green) – and – every glass of lemonade is a toast to my dear departed parents each of whom grew Meyer lemons in their gardens. The Provence lavender is coming on keenly, as are all the herbs (about 50 last count) which will make lovely herb blends for gifts, and the apples are coming on well so caramel applesauce won’t be too far off in the future. Last month’s peach festival-at-home resulted in four variations on peach jam and using the oven method for sterilizing jars means I’m more comfortable making jam anytime there’s great produce available from my garden or the local farmer’s market. I’ve canned honeyed beets, dilly beans, and next weekend will make some homemade tomato ketchup along with some produce a friend has asked me to take from her garden. I love love love this time of year in the garden…
Here in the southwest corner of the “mitten”, we are busy picking blackberries,
peaches and plums. We sell our fruit at three farm markets: two in the mitten and
one in Illinois. We love meeting new customers and renewing our friendships with former ones. IT makes us happy to have “City folks” bite into a tree-ripened plum
and ooo and ah at its sweetness! Anticipating the Saturn peaches reaching harvest-love to see the juice run down soneone’s chin after biting into one of those little “donuts”.
Have been making jams and enjoying green beans (French filets) from our garden, though we plan to “can” all of the beans as we harvest! I do hope to can/freeze some peaches in those beautiful jars you featured. Have learned much from your weekly e mails (garlic harvest, cucumber abnormalities) and look forward to following you through the balance of the season. Do put me in the drawing for your
canning book give-away! Warm regards……
This will be our second year of canning, so I am always looking for recipes and assistance from our blue ribbonbook, friends recipes, and the internet. We just finished our first batch of pickled squash as well as the cucumbers…or should I say pickles. When the beets were in full swing, I canned them as well. Our next venture will be figs, which we have 5 gallons in the freezer, and this will be new territory for us! Lastly right around the corner is salsa. I just love not having to go to the store to buy vegetables, its just a short walk to the garden or the pantry!
I have had fun this summer putting veggies in my freezer and I have also made preserves for the first time. A house on my street that has no one living in it had a hugh fig tree in the yard and instead of the birds getting all of them I decided to give making preserves a try. They are wonderful I have also put peas, squash and tomatoes in the freezer. I know those peas will be just wonderful this winter.
My favorite way to save my tomatoes is to put them in my freezer. Later on, usually when there are only pale versions available at the grocery store, I pull them out, plop them in a pot of hot water, slip the peels off and cook them down into a wonderfully aromatic thick sauce, bringing back summer memories, smiling the whole time.
So funny, Rhonda…I just bagged a half-dozen or so paste types today, because it wasn’t enough for a batch of sauce yet! Nice to see you.
I have been canning all summer. First the abundant Strawberry crop, then fig jam. I have made spagetti sauce, pizza sauce and last night Chili sauce. I used to can in my 20′s. I am now in my 60′s and love getting back to it. I don’t make a lot just what I have extra from my garden. I am not going out and buying bushel baskets and making a huge process out of it.
Peach Chutney — Hot and sweet and magnificent with pork and we have a peach orchard down the road and I love your idea of freezing in jars and avoiding plastic! I am sad that we have such terrible tomato blight out here on eastern long island and I had no tomatoes, and I love tomatoes. This year, I harvested honey for the first time from my own hive. I love the fall.